Matthew 14:16–20 + Foster by Claire Keegan

How do we keep growing when following Jesus has become familiar? How do we remain faithful when life doesn’t turn out the way we expected?

In this six-episode series of the Be Still podcast, Still Becoming: Six Conversations about Spiritual Maturity, Lisa explores the ways God may be asking us to keep growing—not simply so we can follow Jesus faithfully for most of our lives, but so we can finish well.

Because life can test our faith in ways we never anticipated. When our hearts break, our stories take unexpected turns, and God doesn’t give us the answers we want, what happens to our faith? Through Scripture, great books, and honest reflection, Lisa explores what it means to grow in faith, embrace spiritual maturity, and remain faithful to Jesus through every season of life.

What happens when one thing after another has left us depleted—and then love asks something more of us?

In this episode, Lisa explores what it means to remain available to love when we feel we have reached the end of ourselves. Drawing from Matthew 14—the feeding of the five thousand in the immediate aftermath of John the Baptist's death—and Claire Keegan's novella Foster, Lisa considers the quiet, often hidden self-forgetfulness that marks a mature life with Christ.

Jesus doesn't ask the disciples to produce what they don't have. He asks them to place what they do have—five loaves and two fish—into His hands. Spiritual maturity isn't becoming a person with inexhaustible resources. It is the increasing freedom to love from within our own poverty, trusting that what feels insufficient can become something more when surrendered to Christ.

Often the road to sainthood isn't dramatic. It is simply doing the next loving thing—making the meal, staying gentle, listening again, noticing the person in front of us—without needing anyone else to know what it cost.

Perhaps the question isn't whether we have enough. Perhaps it is what we will do with the little we have.

In this episode, Lisa explores:

• What Matthew 14 reveals when we read the feeding of the five thousand in the context of John the Baptist's death
• Why Jesus' own need for solitude shows that self-forgetfulness is not the same as ignoring our limits
• What the five loaves and two fish teach us about generosity in a mindset of scarcity
• Why spiritual maturity isn't having more to give but learning where to bring our insufficiency
• How Claire Keegan's Foster portrays love through quiet, ordinary acts of attention
• What the Kinsellas teach us about remaining available to another person's needs while carrying wounds of our own
• The difference between self-forgetfulness and self-erasure
• Why some of our holiest acts of love may be the ones no one else notices
• How ordinary, costly faithfulness becomes a hidden road to sainthood
• What it means to simply do the next loving thing

Journaling Questions

1. When I reach the point of feeling depleted—emotionally, physically, or spiritually—where do I instinctively go for relief? Do I turn toward Christ, or do I numb myself through scrolling, shopping, food, busyness, entertainment, or some other escape? Which of these actually restore me and which leave me emptier?
2. Think of one situation right now where you find yourself saying, "I don't have enough for this." What, specifically, are your “five loaves and two fish”—the small amount of patience, energy, time, courage, or love you actually do have? Instead of asking yourself to manufacture more, what would it look like to deliberately place that little bit in Jesus' hands before you act?
3. When I am overwhelmed, whose needs become easiest for me not to see? Is there someone in front of me right now whom I have begun to experience primarily as one more demand? What might change if, before responding to that person, I asked Jesus simply, "What is the next loving thing?"

Key Scripture
Matthew 14:16–20. Jesus said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass; and taking the five loaves and the two fish he looked up to heaven, and blessed, and broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over.

Show Mentions
Just in! Back by popular demand, the Walking with Purpose Advent devotional, House of Gold: A Journey into Advent by Caitlin Bean and Laura Phelps is in our shop. House of Gold invites you to reflect on five beautiful Marian titles, each revealing the Blessed Mother’s sacred role in drawing us closer to Jesus and making His love known.

Let’s stay connected.
Don’t miss an episode. Subscribe to our podcast on your favorite platform.